Nancy's Holiday Gift to Trial Lawyers

No wonder the Democrats want to pass a healthcare bill soon. The longer it's in the pipeline, the more people can find out what little goodies are buried within. Like this one for trial lawyers...

Remember Obama’s effort to try a “test” for tort reform? (We don’t actually need a test, since it has worked to lower medical malpractice coverage and help increase access to doctors in states that have tried it.) Well, Pelosi’s bill has an anti-tort-reform measure. On pages 1431-1433 of the 1990 spellbinder, there is a financial incentive for states to try “alternative medical liability laws.” But look — you don’t get the incentive if you have a law that would “limit attorneys’ fees or impose caps on damages.”

That’s what the trial lawyers get for the millions spent in supporting the Democratic party, and that’s what tort “reform” in the Alice-in-Wonderland world of health-care legislation amounts to. States will be strong-armed into repealing existing caps in order to get the Fed’s money.

(hat tip: Bainbridge and Overlawyered) Remember this when people try to sell this bill -- 1,990 pages can hide an awful lot of political favors.